As chef Benny slurped up his noodles noisily across the table, I can smell the aroma of the blend of lard, shallot oil and juices from sautéed pork which transported me straight to Seremban, home of my favourite Hakka noodles. Thanks to chef Pang, now we can have it right here in Singapore. Better still, chef Pang's version comes with delicious accompanying yong tau foo and soups.
Keep walking straight ahead. Sprout Hub is the repurposed assembly hall of the old Henderson Secondary. (How I wish my own secondary school was repurposed too, instead of making way for another condo... 😥 )
The Power Rangers swooped in in formation as I was walking towards Sprout Hub 😄
The Power Rangers were here to refuel.
The repurposed school tuck shop is spacious, airy, bright, clean, neat, cool and very comfortable. Love the high ceiling.
There are several F & B outlets - right now there's artisanal coffee,
beer, pasta, and Pang's Hakka Noodles. It's a new and accessible
place to hide hang out. Very comfortable and there's
plenty of "private" space to curl up with a good book and coffee.
I am not kidding, they actually have a book stall here. So cool, right?
I had the Signature Hakka Noodles with chicken wing (price $8.80).
The mound of noodles sat on a pool of sauce and topped with sautéed minced pork, lard crouton (bak pok) and chopped spring onion.
Yes! This is what I have been looking for in Singapore since falling hard for the Hakka noodles of Tow Kee in Seremban.
The relatively heavy gauge noodles were done al dente in the Italian way - I mean, they were tender but chewy, half a notch
stiffer than I like.
It's the sauce that blew me away, like at Tow Kee. It's a potent blend
of lard and fried shallot oil blended together with juices that came out of
sautéing seasoned minced pork. Think about the layers of savouriness and
depth of flavours enveloping each greasy slick strand. Died a little and
went to noodle heaven a few times and back loh.... .
The accompanying soup had various yong tau foo pieces, all of which were delicious. The soup was mildly savoury sweet which I like.
Fried tofu stuffed with minced pork and salted fish. Nice gentle savoury and sweet flavours with tender chewy bite. The minced pork had layers of flavours as it was blended with good quality mui heong fermented salted fish.
This bitter gourd yong tau foo was cooked to just the right texture - it was soft-tender and juicy with a thin layer of chewy crunch. I haven't encountered such a texture in bitter gourd for a very long time.
I love chunks of radish in soup - it imparts sweetness to the soup while infusing savouriness from it, making itself taste deliciously savoury sweet 😋
I love it that chef Pang uses mani cai (star gooseberry leaf) in his soup as I like the thin leaf's fibrous, chewy crunch and subtle green taste.
There are a few other items in the soup such as fish and pork ball,
fish sheet, fried prawn stick, etc. All good.
The fried chicken wing that came with the Signature Hakka Noodle set was crispy outside and tenderly juicy inside. The batter had the taste of fermented bean curd and red yeast rice - a unique blend that tasted nicely savoury with depth of flavours yet was not so overwhelming that it masked the natural sweet taste of chicken flesh.
Chef Pang also has Hakka Noodles with Scholar Soup which I highly recommend. The soup was spiked with red yeast rice which added aroma and a tinct of subtle tanginess to the soup's savoury sweetness.
There's pork slices, liver slices, fried prawn stick, pork & fish
balls, mani cai, etc., inside. Everything was nice - the pork slices
were tender and sweet, the liver slices were savoury and had a soft
tender crunch.
Chef Pang described the Scholar Soup so well, I'll let you read it yourself from his Facebook page. At $4.50 a set, the Hakka Noodles with Scholar Soup is hard to beat in value and it is so delicious some more! 😄 Don't wait lo... .
If you must have chili with everything, chef Pang has this sambal with robust crustacean umami and sharp sting from chili padi. Use it as a dip or mix it right into the noodles 😄
I've known chef Pang for nearly ten years now. He has always been obsessive about his craft and puts his heart and soul into his dishes. He did it again with Pang's Hakka Noodles. The Hakka noodles we tasted today bear all the hallmarks of chef Pang's dedication and commitment to quality while giving good value to his customers.
Written by Tony Boey on 21 Sep 2021
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